I knew, and many others knew, that should the old chaps retire or die, Harris was The Next TopGear Presenter. Had The Fracas not happened, May and Clarkson could have retired knowing Harris will continue the show as well as he can. Harris could have inherited TopGear more gracefully; he wouldn’t have gotten in the crosshairs of raging fans who would rather call airstrikes than see Chris Harris and appreciate.

To me, those angry fans—and they’re many—stripped Harris of his inheritance, of his due. He lost legitimacy, where in fact he basically built himself for the job. The BBC knew it, which is why they keep pushing Harris more, but the damage has been done already.

I feel for the guy somewhat because he deserves better than these kinds of viewers. He deserves MORE viewers, to begin with. He deserves better than what he’s getting.

Worse is, there it is. The Grand Tour. Final blow, really. Unless he goes maximum Thanos and says “Fine, I’ll do it myself” to take over production, he’d just get massacred, along with the entirety of the show. It’s just fortunate that TG is there every spring.

I wonder if he and Clarkson ever met and if they talked about the programme. What did the old geezer say to him? What did he think of this stocky bloke who does a sort of Bite-Size TopGear on YouTube?